Red–Green Alliance (Denmark)

The Red–Green Alliance[14][15] or Unity List[16][17][18] (Danish: Enhedslisten – De Rød-Grønne,[19] lit. 'The Unity List – The Red–Greens', EL) is an eco-socialist political party in Denmark.[4] It was founded in 1989 with the merger of three Marxist parties[20] and it is the furthest left-wing party in the Danish parliament, where it advocates for an expansion of welfare and social justice as well as socialist transformation in Denmark and internationally.[21] During the 2021 Copenhagen City Council election the party placed first in the Danish capital Copenhagen, with 24.6% of the votes.[22] The party is also active in various Danish trade unions.[21][23]

Red–Green Alliance
Enhedslisten – De Rød-Grønne
AbbreviationEL
Ø [lower-alpha 1]
LeaderCollective leadership
Political spokespersonPelle Dragsted
Founded2 December 1989
Merger ofLeft Socialists
Communist Party of Denmark
Socialist Workers Party
Communist Workers Party independents
HeadquartersStudiestræde 24, 1 1455 København K
Youth wingNone (cooperating with RGU and SUF)
Membership (2021)Decrease 9,398[1]
Ideology
Political positionLeft-wing[8][9] to far-left[10]
European affiliationNow the People
Party of the European Left
European Anti-Capitalist Left
European Parliament groupThe Left in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL[11]
Nordic affiliationNordic Green Left Alliance
Colours  Red
  Green
  Orange (customary)
Folketing
European Parliament
1 / 14
Regions[12]
12 / 205
Municipalities[13]
102 / 2,432
Election symbol
Ø
Website
enhedslisten.dk

Political and ideological position

The party describes itself as a socialist and democratic grassroots party, which claims also to represent green politics, peace movement, anti-discrimination, and trade union movement. The party's ideological position is set out in a manifesto from 2014.[21] It proposes that a socialistic society of the future "neither can nor should be described in detail, but rather be developed and shaped by the people living in it". It describes socialism as "an answer to the problems caused by capitalism such as non-sufficient democracy, crises, destruction of nature, inequality, racism and war".[21]

Holding anti-capitalist[6] and soft Eurosceptic[4][24][25] views, about the economic system it says:

A new and actually democratic system of society requires fundamental changes in the ownership of the means of production, such as companies, land and natural resources. Collective forms of ownership will be dominating. We propose that public authorities, co-workers, local communities and other collectives of persons should own and run institutions and companies. ... A democratic economy means a democratic work life as well. The work place should be characterized by democracy, and the employees must have a constitutional right to decisive influence on the organization of work in the workplace.[21]

The Red–Green Alliance recognizes that methods achieving this may differ depending on the course of class struggle, but will eventually require a revolution—one that must be supported by a majority of the population manifested through democratic and free elections.[21] The party often adopts particular views in relation to the other parties in the Folketing and opt out of many of the settlements reached, seen as an expression of class collaboration. Until the conditions for the party's long-term goal are presented, the party will use its seats in parliament to vote for any improvement and against any deterioration of working-class people's lives. In line with this, the party agreed at its national conference in 2010 that if Helle Thorning-Schmidt became Prime Minister after the 2011 election, the party would vote for a "red" budget bill that did not contain obvious flaws.

Policies

Social policy

The party places great emphasis on the fight against social inequality and poverty, and is in favour of strengthening and expanding the welfare state. The party believes there is place in society for all forms of diversity, including gender, sexuality, disability and ethnic background.[26] It also advocates for a larger public sector, among other things, to improve quality of life for public sector employees.[27]

The party believes people should be free to choose when they want to get an education and is opposed to tuition fees, which they believe harm opportunities for everyone to acquire an education.[28] The party does not see unemployment as being equal to laziness and seeks to abolish the Danish equivalent of workfare.[29]

Economic policy

The party is decisively anti-capitalist and has particularly distinguished itself as an opponent of transfer pricing, whereby multinational companies minimise the amount they pay in tax by attributing their profits to countries with lower tax rates.

In response to the Great Recession, the Red–Green Alliance urged stricter control of loans, the introduction of a Tobin tax, and the nationalisation of banks and mortgage companies. It also believes that the public sector must be expanded, the wages of the lowest-paid workers should be raised, and the insurance-based unemployment benefit period should be extended to a minimum of four years. At the same time, students should be given a greater state education grant.[30] At minimum, all benefits should be raised to 13,500 kroner per month before taxes.[29]

Foreign policy

The party advocates for foreign policy based on respect for human rights, which it believes has not been appropriately prioritised in the past. It also proposes greater support for developing countries through a doubling of foreign aid,[31] and campaigns for Denmark's withdrawal from NATO. In March 2019, the party announced it would no longer campaign for a referendum to leave the EU, pointing to Brexit illustrating the need for clarity before withdrawal can be considered.[32]

The party operates on the fundamental belief that peace is preferable to war, and has been opposed from the beginning to Denmark's participation in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That principle was challenged in 2011, when the party's parliamentary group voted in favour of Danish participation in the UN-sanctioned military action in Libya on the basis that it was a humanitarian action.[33] However, the decision led to significant backlash, and the party's support was pulled back after the military intervention began.[34]

History
Election posters, including Red–Green Alliance, at the parliamentary elections in 2007

The party was formed in 1989 as an electoral alliance of three left-wing parties: Left Socialists (VS), Communist Party of Denmark (DKP), and Socialist Workers Party (SAP). Originally the plan was to unite these parties alongside The Greens (De Grønne), Common Course, and Humanist to form a broad-based progressive movement, but this did not materialize.[35] A fourth party, the Communist Workers Party (KAP), succeeded in joining the alliance in 1991, but its involvement was vetoed a year later by DKP.

Prior to the 2007 parliamentary election, the party enlisted Asmaa Abdol-Hamid, a Danish Muslim candidate who identified herself as a feminist, democrat, and socialist.[36] She is endorsed by some imams, opposed by others (including those in Hizb-ut-Tahrir), wears a hijab and will not shake hands with men.[37] These facts, and some of her statements regarding politics and religion, made her the target of some criticism across the political spectrum, particularly from the Danish People's Party. Some left-wing figures cited her candidacy as a reason for withdrawing their support from the party.[38] An anti-religious network was created within the party with the stated goal of turning the party into a solely atheist party with a materialist–Marxist basis.[39]

During the campaign, there was some speculation as to whether her candidacy would attract or repel voters.[40][41] The results of the election were 2.2% for the party, down from 3.4% in the 2005 parliamentary elections. Although not elected, Abdol-Hamid maintained that she had attracted voters to the party. The four seats won by the party went to Frank Aaen, Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen, Line Barfod, and Per Clausen.

In the 2011 parliamentary election, the party received 6.7% of the vote and tripled its representation from 4 seats to 12 seats.

The party contested the 2013 local elections on a platform of improving public transport and making greater public investment.[42]

As part of the left-leaning "Red bloc" coalition with the Social Democrats, the Red–Green Alliance accepted the state budget twice and was in opposition twice in the period from 2011 to 2015. But at no point did they report direct opposition to the government. In the 2015 general election, the party received 7.8% of the vote and increased its representation from 12 seats to 14 seats.

Leadership

The party is the only one in the Folketing which does not have an official party leader, instead having collective leadership. However, since 2009 it has had a political spokesperson, who has served as the party's de facto representative, and serves as its leader in party leader debates.[43]

List of political spokespersons

Electoral performance

Parliament
Election Votes  % Seats +/– Government
1990 54,038 1.7 (#10)
0 / 179
 Steady 0 Extra-parliamentary
1994 104,701 3.1 (#7)
6 / 179
 Increase 6 Opposition
1998 91,933 2.7 (#8)
5 / 179
 Decrease 1 External support
2001 82,685 2.4 (#7)
4 / 179
 Decrease 1 Opposition
2005 114,123 3.4 (#7)
6 / 179
 Increase 2 Opposition
2007 74,982 2.2 (#8)
4 / 179
 Decrease 2 Opposition
2011 236,860 6.7 (#6)
12 / 179
 Increase 8 External support
2015 274,463 7.8 (#4)
14 / 179
 Increase 2 Opposition
2019 244,664 6.9 (#6)
13 / 179
 Decrease 1 External support
2022 181,452 5.1 (#8)
9 / 179
 Decrease 4 Opposition

Red–Green Alliance tends to have a higher vote share in large urban areas, and especially in Copenhagen Municipality. In the 2022 Danish general election, it became the largest party in 4 nomination districts of the municipality, namely Inner City, Nørrebro, Bispebjerg and Vesterbro. The party is much more weakly positioned in rural parts of Denmark, having received only 2.9% of the vote outside the municipalities of the three largest cities. [44]

Local elections
Municipal elections
Year Seats
# ±
1993
6 / 4,703
 New
1997
14 / 4,685
 Increase 8
2001
11 / 4,647
 Decrease 3
Municipal reform
2005
24 / 2,522
 Increase 13
2009
14 / 2,468
 Decrease 10
2013
119 / 2,444
 Increase 105
2017
102 / 2,432
 Decrease 17
2021
114 / 2,436
 Increase 12
  
Regional elections
Year Seats
# ±
1993
1 / 374
 New
1997
2 / 374
 Increase 1
2001
2 / 374
 Steady 0
Municipal reform
2005
6 / 205
 Increase 4
2009
2 / 205
 Decrease 4
2013
15 / 205
 Increase 13
2017
12 / 205
 Decrease 3
2021
14 / 205
 Increase 2

European Parliament

Prior to 2016, the Red–Green Alliance never directly contested elections to the European Parliament, preferring to support the People's Movement against the EU, a Eurosceptic party whose MEP sits in the European United Left–Nordic Green Left group. Some of the party's MPs were considering running an independent list for the 2014 elections,[45] but this idea was dismissed by a majority on the party's yearly meeting.[46]

In a historic decision in the party's yearly meeting in May 2016, a majority decided to directly contest the 2019 European Parliament election.[47]

Year Group Votes  % Seats +/-
2019 GUE/NGL 151,903 5.5 (#7)
1 / 14
 N/A

Membership
YearMembership'Change in Percent
19921.082–
1993999-7.7%
19941.093+9.4%
19951.189+8.8%
19961.282+7.8%
19971.479+15.4%
19982.023+36.8%
19991.968-2.7%
20001.945-1.1%
20011.992+2.4%
20022.366+18.8%
20032.321-1.9%
20042.524+8.7%
20053.739+48.1%
20064.127+10.4%
20074.099-0.7%
20084.330+5.6%
20094.373+1.0%
20104.553+4.1%
20117.714+51.0%
20129.385+21.7%
20139.483+1.0%
20149.023-4.9%
20159.504+5.3%
20169.335-1.8%
20179.015-3.4%
20188.936-3.4%
20199.662+8.1%

Elected representatives

2022 Danish general election

Notes
  1. Official party letter on voting ballot
  2. Only 175 of the 179 seats in the Danish Parliament, the Folketing, are obtainable by Danish political parties as Greenland and the Faroe Islands are assigned two seats each due to their status as territories in the Kingdom of Denmark.

See also

References
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  2. "Danish elections 2015: a guide to the parties, candidates and electoral system". the Guardian. 16 June 2015. Archived from the original on 11 July 2022. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
  3. Political and cultural representations of Muslims : Islam in the plural. Christopher Flood. Leiden: Brill. 2012. p. 43. ISBN 978-90-04-23103-0. OCLC 808367020.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
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  9. Imagining the Peoples of Europe – populist discourses across the political spectrum. Edited by Jan Zienkowski and Ruth Breeze. p. 149. Chapter 6. Chapter author – Óscar García Agustín. Published by John Benjamins Publishing Company in 2019. Retrieved via Google Books.
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